The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps people with low incomes avoid hunger and afford food. It stimulates the economy, improves individuals' success at school and work, and promotes better health. SNAP's Employment and Training (E&T) program is designed to assist participants in gaining skills, training, or work experience…

School district officials have faced the urgent task in recent years of ensuring that all schools, not just a lucky few, benefit from sure-footed leadership by professionals who know how to focus on instruction and improve it. The question boils down to this: How can districts develop a pipeline of great school principals? Research about a Wallace…

School district officials have faced the urgent task in recent years of ensuring that all schools, not just a lucky few, benefit from sure-footed leadership by professionals who know how to focus on instruction and improve it. The question boils down to this: How can districts develop a pipeline of great school principals? Research about a Wallace…

In recent years, K-12 schools throughout the United States have garnered nationwide attention because of bullying problems. Bullying impacts schools in various ways: student performance and self-regard, and it creates an environment of hostility in schools. Many factors contribute to the problem, including socioeconomic status, low self-esteem,…

The Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI) is a statewide program designed to assess the college readiness of high school students in 11th grade, and for those assessed as not college-ready, to provide instruction in the 12th grade that will lead to their college success. The assessment used is the Postsecondary Education…

Bullying has become a nationwide concern at the K-12 level. Guided by the theoretical framework of social learning theory, this study explored the perceptions of secondary education teachers about the bully-proofing program in place at one target middle school. Despite the target middle school's anti-bullying program, the incidence of bullying had…

An important feature of professional development school (PDS) work is encouraging collaborative reflective dialogue that guides a partnership toward actualizing the possibilities for and mission of a PDS. This article provides a case "illustration" of a fictitious, exemplary PDS and a "protocol" that in combination can be used…

The intent of the Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI) is to help students become college-ready by high school graduation, and subsequently to succeed in obtaining college credentials. This is done by testing college readiness in grade 11 and requiring that students testing below college-ready take college readiness and success…

A quality improvement system (QIS) is an intentional effort to raise the quality of afterschool programming in an ongoing, organized fashion. There are a number of reasons the QIS is gaining popularity. The main reasons community leaders are drawn to improving quality is that they know that 1) higher quality programs will mean better experiences…

The Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative is a statewide policy that mandates college placement testing of 11th-graders who meet high school graduation criteria but are unlikely to meet college readiness criteria. Students who score below college-ready on the Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT) are required to take math and…

In cities and towns across America, millions of children and youth get out of school by mid-afternoon but have neither a safe, supervised place to go nor a structured or engaging activity in which to participate. Because the hours between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. are when young people are most likely to be affected by crime or to engage in risky…

This is the fourth report of a process evaluation of Palm Beach County Prime Time, Inc., an intermediary organization dedicated to improving the quality of afterschool programs, by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. It covers the 2007-2008 program year, which was the inaugural year of Prime Time's formal Quality Improvement System (QIS)…

During 2006, High/Scope worked with the Forum to provide training and technical assistance to several state and regional networks which are building quality improvement and accountability systems. In each community, High/Scope staff presented to local decision-makers and provided one- or two-day pilot training workshops for parishioners and…

NCATE (2002) requires the measurement of knowledge, skills, and dispositions as part of its accreditation requirements for teacher education programs (Standard 1) and the use of unit assessment systems to aggregate and analyse data with a view toward program improvement (Standard 2). Data must indicate that candidates meet professional, state, and…

A statewide pilot study of career education needs was conducted by surveying 667 Florida educators who have been actively involved in career education. The 354 respondents rated the actual attainment and the desired priority of the students needs, the need for improving the program needs, and other information both general and specific to career…